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An open letter to Canadians from David Suzuki
• I am writing this as an individual citizen, not on behalf of any organization or political party. In fact, I do not belong to any political party. I will support candidates, platforms and policies of any party that move our country towards a more just and sustainable future.
I was delighted to see that the...

by Paul Lemay
• When I was a boy growing up in the ‘60s and into the ‘70s, I remember how we used to look up to our prime ministers, regardless of the political party they represented. But after Watergate it seemed the bloom on all political roses began to fall off. Now 40-plus years on, all we’re left with are a few thorny stems and the few precious...

by Rodney Watson
• My name is Rodney Watson; I am a U.S. Army Iraq war veteran who went AWOL after serving my country in a one-year deployment to Mosul Iraq, from October 2005 to October 2006. During my deployment, my eyes were opened to the fact that we should never have been there at all. I was willing to risk my life just like many other brave souls who...

Here comes the new DSM
DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels
• The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs
Towards the end of May, the fifth version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), the iconic bible of psychiatry, is coming off the presses after much revision and delay. It’s bound to keep people asking, “Am I normal or do I...

by Joy McCarthy
• People are completely time-starved these days. Not cooking at home as much and eating fast food on the go has created the need to maximize the nutritional content of every morsel consumed. This is why adding supplements such as fish oil or a protein powder to your diet is a growing trend and a simple way to improve overall nutrition.
You can...

by Joel Lord
• The Vaccine Resistance Movement is a grassroots, non-profit organization, empowering communities around the world with the means of self-sufficiency, while determined to expose vaccine fraud and pharmaceutical industry malfeasance.
March 12: VRM hosts “Vaccine Summit: Vancouver 2013” – a major, interactive symposium on vaccines,...

How an ancient poet inspired a local initiative
to preserve McLellan Forest
by Susan McCaslin / photos by Erin Perry
• Last Thanksgiving, I discovered that Glen Valley in Langley still had some mature rainforest. This discovery was bittersweet, however, as I also learned the Township of Langley was planning to sell it off to raise funds to build a recreation...

by Bruce Mason
• For many years, Gabriola Island – the most northern Southern Gulf Island – has been known as “Petroglyph Island” or “Isle of the Arts” because of its ubiquitous, ancient stone carvings and one of the highest per capita concentrations of artists in Canada.
Now, Gabriola Island has a new major attraction: a unique,...

Do something great for Canada Water Week, March 18-24
Nuclear waste dump fact sheet
1. Ontario Power Generation (OPG), a multi-billion dollar corporation wholly owned by the Province of Ontario, plans to build a nuclear waste dump at the Bruce Nuclear Power Plant site, in the Municipality of Kincardine, Ontario, located approximately one kilometer inland from...

A story of stolen land
by Thomas King
• In 1942, during World War II, the Government of Canada went looking around for a place to set up a military-training base. Surprise of surprises, they found such a site on the Stoney Point Ojibway reserve in Ontario. Ipperwash.
The government offered the band fifteen dollars an acre for the land. The band refused and the...

SCIENCE MATTERS by David Suzuki
• A 14-year-old boy in Donetsk, Ukraine, made a fascinating discovery halfway around the world and 894 metres under the sea. Kirill Dudko was watching Neptune Canada’s live-stream footage of the ocean floor near Vancouver Island on his computer when he saw a creature with a “nose and moustache” eat a hagfish. It seemed...

FILMS WORTH WATCHING by Robert Alstead
• “When you retire, you become a bit of a leftist,” says one of the interviewees in Dror Moreh’s The Gatekeepers, a statement that helps explain why six retired heads of Shin Bet (Israel’s internal security service) agreed to share candid insights into their shadowy and frequently lethal profession. While I’ve...